The Dred Scott Case and The Obama Birthers - Racism Alive and Well

By TRB

Donald Trump, the millionaire with the dead fox on his head, always raises the question for me: Would you rather be dumb and wealthy or intelligent and poor? I would rather be intelligent and poor. Recently It has become much easier to answer this question - since Trump has taken up the rhetoric of the "birthers,"i.e., those in America who claim they do not believe that President Obama was born in the United States.

They don't believe - despite the official birth certificate.

They don't believe - even though his birth notice was run in the local newspaper the day following his birth and could not have been faked in any respect.

They don't believe - even when the present Governor of Hawaii says he was good friends with Obama's parents and can remember the day Obama was born there.

In the United States.

Now, when I say people don't believe he was born in the U.S., I am talking about 51 percent of Republicans. Are we to believe that 51 percent of Republicans, facing such overwhelming evidence that Obaba was indeed born in this nation, could be so stupid as to really believe otherwise?

I doubt this. Even the talking heads on the news programs seem taken aback by these statistics that contradict what is probably better evidence of birth place than many people have. I for example have the birth certificate, but not the notice in the paper. And the present Governor certainly can't remember when I was born here. Barack Obama has ironclad evidence that he was born in the United States.

But along come some folks - mostly white men - calling themselves "birthers," and they say he was born in Africa or Indonesia. Why do they say this in the face of such contradictory evidence?

They say it because, they're really not "birthers".

They are racists. Remember racism? That ugly thing that you thought you didn't have to talk about anyomore now that we have an African American president? Well, guess again.

These are racists who do not believe that a black man should be president. And that is the fear they play on, the fear Trump now plays on - the fear of "the other," the, he's not like us, has a different background, more worldly, maybe even better than us. At least he acts like he's "better" than us. Of course all presidents have always acted like that, and I have seen no proof that Obama has followed suit. But it is clear that when the President simply acts "Presidential," it drives these so called "birther" racists crazy.

You have to go all the way back to what most believe was the worst Supreme Court decision of all time to know where these current day racists are coming from. They are probably not even aware of the Dred Scott case and the Supreme Court decision, but somehow, maybe instinctively, racists can feel this more than a century old decision in their bones.

The case was cut and dry. A black man named Dred Scott sued for his freedom back in 1856. He argued that he was living in a "free state" as a slave and should have the right to be freed. Some of the lower courts even agreed. But the Supreme Court would make the ultimate decision. And sitting on the Supreme Court was Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a disgrace to every thing this nation stands for - Actually not unlike some Supreme Court justices of today.

The Supreme Court, under Taney's guidance predicted that a "parade of horribles" would occur if the SC ruled in Scott's favor giving him his freedom. Among these horribles - the right to enter any state, the full liberty of speech, the right to hold public meetings, the right to bear arms. The racist court and the racist populace couldn't have this and the Supreme Court ruled against Scott on March 6, 1857.

But they didn't simply dismiss Scott's case. No, they made some rulings that helped hold back African Americans for even more years. For example, they ruled that slaves could never be U.S. citizens or protected by the constitution. They ruled that slaves could not sue in court. They ruled that slaves could not be taken from their "owners" without due process.

This was the Supreme Court ruling that created "the other." It said whiteness and America go hand-in-hand.

So you see, the "Birther Movement" is the reemergence of racism in America. It is, like in was in 1857, a lie, a well-funded lie. They believe that citizenship is about race and birthright. They don't like Obama's race. But they know they can't openly attack that because it would reveal who they really are. So instead they go after his birthright, even though it is spotless.

These are the new racists.

"The Birthers" would like nothing better than to take that birthright away from America's first African American president - just as the racist Taney Court did to Dred Scott back in 1859.